1. Technical Field
This invention relates, generally, to golf clubs and, in particular, to a golf club head including a frequency-selectable insert.
2. Background Information
An individual golfer's response to the impact between the club head and golf ball during a golf swing is highly individualized, depending not only upon certain biomechanical and kinesthetic characteristics of the golfer, but also upon complex subjective and psychological factors. These and other factors tend to inform a golfer's overall impression of a golf club's performance.
The vibrations produced during impact propagate through the club to the golfer. When a golfer executes a swing as intended, the “feel” of the vibrations tend to promote the golfer's confidence in the club head. In contrast, when the timing and/or form of a swing are not as intended, many golfers experience unpleasant vibrations in the hands, wrist, arms, and other parts of the body, which may reduce the golfer's affinity for the club head. In response, a golfer's body will, in a manner largely beyond the perception of the golfer, tend to compensate for the unpleasant vibrations produced by an imperfect impact by tightening muscle groups or otherwise making subtle musculoskeletal adjustments in an attempt to reproduce a desired vibrational sensation.
In the context of addressing the individualized nature of a golfer's response to club head vibration, prior art golf clubs are unsatisfactory in a number of respects. For example, many prior art club heads are configured to produce a single, predetermined sound irrespective of the preferences of the particular individual actually using the club. U.S. Pat. No. 3,387,844, for example, discloses a golf club head which includes a “percussion chamber plenum” characterized by a single, non-customizable tone apparently intended to provide confirmation of a successful hit. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,551,694, issued to Grim et al., discloses a golf putter which includes two parallel vibrating tines configured to produce a specific tone during impact.
Prior art club heads which include customizable features have failed to provide a variety of inserts which exhibit a range of frequency response characteristics which may be tailored to a particular golfer. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,132, issued to Fisher, discloses a putter face insert to yield the desired “rebound factor” which, secondarily, has a certain “feel” during impact. U.S. Pat. No. 6,238,303, issued to Fite, discloses a golf putter with adjustable characteristics, including texture and “feel”; these characteristics do not include, however, a predetermined frequency response. U.S. Pat. No. 5,746,664, issued to Reynolds, discloses a golf putter head with removable weights asserted to affect the club's “feel”. U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,931, issued to Hettinger et al., discloses an isolation layer between the club head body and a weight body (each of which is fabricated from a different material) such that the “feel and playability” of the club head is the same as a club head fabricated from a single material.